


Damn Daniel Back At It Again With The Black Skinny Jeans

by Derping



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/F, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Gen, High School, Ill indicate the trigger warnings in the actual chapter, Love Triangles, M/M, Multi, only inside his head tho, sassy!Phil, shy!dan/slightlyemo!dan, so... look out for that. ;3, yes im an idiot, yes thats the title
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-26
Updated: 2016-10-09
Packaged: 2018-07-18 11:25:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7313341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Derping/pseuds/Derping
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>High school au, because there aren't enough. Love triangle (you'll see)<br/>Dan Howell, the mysterious new kid<br/>Cat Valdes, the shy girl who is also new<br/>Phil Lester, the dork (who everyone picks on)<br/>Chris & PJ "I won't say it no, no, I won't say I'm in love"<br/>And come one guys. This is high school. What could go wrong?</p><p> </p><p>>:)<br/>I was somewhat inspired by Anidiot on  ao3 please read their works cuz they are amazing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Basically a highschool full of youtubers (maybe also viners). Just so you know this is supposed to be set in England except I'm American and idk wtf im doing. X3 Enjoy!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> { https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojOXAxUk1bQ&index=1&list=PLni6x5CvGvbatS_v6HVvFPs-RbBBVbNbD }
> 
> { https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWU3CotSYpE&list=PLni6x5CvGvbatS_v6HVvFPs-RbBBVbNbD&index=2 }
> 
> There are at least 2 chapter songs for each chapter, so here ya go!   
> (btw, these songs are just songs that fit the mood of the chapter, and the lyrics don't necessarily have anything to do with it)  
>  Enjoy!

“And this  is why a 2  \+ b 2  = c 2 , students, this will be on tonight’s homework so please pay attention, I’m looking at you Phil.” The teacher shot her signature snake eyes at me, but I couldn’t be bothered. You can’t get in trouble if you didn’t do anything wrong. So what if I had been zoning out a bit? Everyone does. Nobody actually likes her class, and it didn’t help that it was Geometry. 

The bell rang and I started getting my stuff together, like everyone else. 

“Please remember to grab your homework from the bin on your way out.” She coughs as I walk by. This is honestly the worst. Just because I forgot to grab my homework that  _ one _ time… Students and teachers alike really seem to enjoy picking on me. I’ve learned not to let it get to me. It’s pointless to focus on things you have no control over. 

“Hey Chris! Have you seen Peej?” I ask finally spotting him at his locker. Chris and PJ and I have been friends since the 4th grade, and now we’re all in the 9th grade. Needless to say a lot has changed since then. For one thing, I realized I’m bisexual in 7th grade, I’ve told Chris and PJ and they’re still here, with me. The whole, ‘It’s the 21st century’ thing changes nothing. It was still extremely difficult to come to terms with myself AND tell my friends. I never had to ‘come out’ because I’m a strong believe in equality, so if straight people don’t have to ‘come out’ then no one else has to either. But I figured I’d tell them anyway because it’s a part of who I am, and they knew everything else about me anyway.

“Phil! Chris! Where have you guys been?” And it’s as if saying his name made him appear. PJ is sprinting towards us and nearly falls flat on his face after tripping over his shoelaces and crashing into me. 

After helping him up again, I say, “In class, where else?”

“So you haven’t heard?”   
“Heard about what!? God, Peej, you’re driving me insane. Phil and I got out of Geometry late as always and we came straight here. We haven’t heard anything.”

PJ holds up a finger to say “one second” and catches his breath and finally saying, “There’s a dance!” 

“So?” I can tell Chris is also confused.

“Why is that big news? There are  _ always  _ dances.” Chris says, looking a little annoyed now.

“The Student Council convinced the school to have it exclusively for 9th graders!” Oh. Now  _ this _ was exciting. Sure there were dances, but they were either for all the grades, or a few for the 12th graders only, since they were graduating. 

“But, why?” I swear, sometimes it’s like Chris and I have the same brain. If ’m being honest it’s quite terrifying.

“I don’t know, but I think it had something to do with ‘bonding’ with our peers, since we’re stuck with them for the next four years. At least that’s what Zoe said it took to convince them.” Well when he puts it like that, it makes a lot more sense. We lived in a typical small town, with a pretty small school as well, so it wasn’t uncommon to know the name of everyone in your year. 

The school had a very strong (but useless) ‘No Bullying’ campaign (it was one of the first things they talked about on the first day orientation) so I have no doubt they had that in mind as well when they agreed to this dance.

“Well whatever the reason, I think it’s pretty exciting. We get to have a dance with all our friends, and without being made fun of by the older kids!” PJ did look pretty excited. He had that mischievous glow in his spring green eyes. 

“Right then, who are you asking to the dance?” Chris asks him, as we start walking to the cafeteria for lunch.

“Oh, I was thinking you and I could go together…” I swear it looked like PJ was blushing for a second. 

“You know, as friends!” he quickly adds, “You too, Phil, we could all go togeth-” he suggests, but Chris quickly cuts him off.

“When’s the dance?” he asks.

“In a month and 2 weeks, why?” PJ says, looking a bit hurt at being interrupted.

“Right then, I dare you to get a date in one month, you too Phil, in fact, all of us will. Who ever gets a date earliest gets treated to frozen yogurt by whoever gets a date last.” PJ looked stunned, Chris looked extremely smug, and it was all I could do not to laugh at them. 

“Sure, count me in.” I say, because well, why not? PJ still looks a bit shocked. “You in Peej? Come on, it won’t be that bad.” I say. 

“It would be so much easier to go as a friend group. I bet everyone else is thinking of doing that as well.”

Chris and I give him puppy eyes, he adds a ‘pwease’ for good measure.

“Ok, fine. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

-_-~*`*~-__-~*`*~-_-~*`*~-_-~*`*~-_-~*`*~-_-~*`*~-_-

 

Chris and PJ pull out a sandwich and a bagel out of their brown paper bags, and I leave them to debate about the whether Klink is a dumb pokemon or not so that I can go buy lunch. I see Louise in line already waving her lunch tray at me as an invitation. I join her and grab a tray of my own. As we walk down the line each getting a slice of pizza and fries she starts telling me the latest news. 

“So have you heard?” she asks.

“About the dance? Yes, in fact PJ nearly ran me over in the hallway earlier, screaming about it.” I say a bit uninterested, having heard it from PJ already.

“Well that’s great, but no. I was talking about the new students.” This catches my attention. I was a new student in 4th grade. It was one of the worst times in my life, until I met PJ, and then Chris, and soon it was one of the best moments in my life. I met Louise the year after that. We hit it off pretty well since we both had what would be considered a ‘weird’ or ‘quirky’ personality. 

“Oh wow, that’s cool! Wait, did you say student-s as in  **multiple** new people?”

She nods, “There are two.” Like I said, it’s a small town and even smaller school, so new students were pretty exciting news.

“I’ve only met the girl, and she seems nice enough, a bit shy though. I heard from Zoe that the other one is a boy.” 

“Do you know their names?” I say in attempt to keep the conversation going, whilst grabbing chocolate milk and then paying for my lunch. I wait for her as she grabs a bottle of apple juice and pays for her lunch. 

“Catherine who goes by Cat, and Daniel who goes by Dan.” You’d have to ask someone who was in one of Dan’s classes what he was like because I’ve only met Cat. Or you could wait, I’m sure you’ll find out soon enough.” I nodded in response. 

“By the way, where are they right now?” I say out of curiosity.

“Guidance counselor’s for lunch since it’s their first day.” She says. I nod, remembering my own first day. 

“See you later, Phil!” she says, heading of to sit with Zoe.

“Bye!” I call and then head to reunite with Chris and PJ. 

“So are you gonna ask Louise to the dance?” Chris asks as I sit down with my lunch. 

I almost choke on the fry I was eating, “Of course not! I like her as just a friend, you know that. It would be like if you asked me, or PJ as a date.” At that PJ looks up and slaps my arm.  _ What was that for?  _ I think, but before I can ask I look up to PJ blushing and Chris looking a bit pale.

Well that was weird…

The warning bell rings, as a signal of 5 minutes left of lunch, and I eat my lunch as quickly as possible and split the rest of my fries with Chris and PJ just because I hate wasting food. The bell rings and we quickly get our stuff together to go to class. I wave by to Chris and PJ, who are on their way to Spanish, and I turn to go the opposite direction where French is. 

“Oomph!” I hear someone say and there is a sudden explosion of papers flying everywhere. 

“I am so sorry. Here let me help you.” I drop my books and start picking up some blank papers that are scattered on the ground. 

“No- it’s alright- I mean, I’m sorry.” I hear an unfamiliar voice mumble in a slightly southern accent. I look up to see a boy with brown hair in a fringe similar to mine with brown eyes to match. He’s wearing a black shirt and black skinny jeans like me. Not to mention an adorable pair of dimples. Note-to-self: I may have found the cutest guy on earth. We finish gathering his papers and stand up awkwardly. Or at least, I stand up awkwardly, using one hand to hold my books and the other stuck in my jeans pocket in an awkward position. 

“So… What class do you have right now?” I ask, “I’m Phil, by the way.”

“I’m Dan,” he says, “I’m supposed to be in Mme Veere’s French class right now.” 

“Really? Me too! I’m sure she won’t be mad at you for being late, it is only your first day after all.” I point my books down the suddenly empty hallway and say, “Come on, it’s this way. If we run we won’t be more than 2 minutes late.” So we take of jogging. It can’t be more than 6 or 7 meters away, but when we get to class we’re both out of breath, Dan slightly more so than me. 

“Bonjour garcons! Why are you late?” Mme Veere says in a very southern french accent. 

I can feel my face turning bright red as the other students stare at me and Dan, who is adjusting his hair. I’m about to explain why we were late when I hear Dan speak fluent french. 

“Je desole, je suis le nouveau eleve, je m’appelle Dan.” I feel my jaw dropping open, along with all the other students. Everyone understood what he was saying but no one could say is as quickly or perfectly as he had.

“J’etais perdu et Phil aide a trouver la salle de classe.” he finishes. 

“C’est bon, trouver les bureaus, garcons.” she says. 

I nod and find an open seat which happens to be right next to the only other open seat, so Dan and I sit down, not wanting to interrupt the class anymore than we had. She starts writing some new vocab on the board. She always gives us printed copies of vocab with a picture after a lesson anyway so this was just to help understand what the word meant. It was pretty easy, so I just zoned out and started doodling. After a while Dan drops his pencil on the ground between our seats and bends over to pick it up. He grabs his pencil, but now where his pencil was there was a small piece of paper.  _ He must not know that he dropped it.  _ So I bend down to pick it up to give it back to him, but with a glance over the paper I see that it’s a note,  **for me!**

I read what it says, noticing how neat the handwriting was,  **‘Hi Phil! Thank you for helping pick up my stuff, and being late with me. XD**

Smiling at the use of the ‘XD’ emoji, I quickly scribble one on the back of the paper,  **‘Np I’m sure you would have done the same for me x3’**

He reads it and smiles, then he turns to see me staring at him and smiles again, but this time he winks. I swear to god in that moment my heart burst into a million butterflies and flew straight into my stomach and up to my throat causing me to choke.

With only 5 minutes left of class I tune back in and pretend like I was paying attention all along. Mme Veere is talking a project that involves assigned partners.  _ Ugh. That never works out well for me.  _ Mme Veere starts reading out a list of names saying that she will explain the rest of the project tomorrow. 

“Zoe Sugg and Alfie Deyes,” I roll my eyes,  _ Of course they’re together. Mme Veere confirmed ships it. _ “Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox,”  _ She’s going to regret that… _ “Dan Howell and Phil Lester.” I turn to my right and see Dan staring at me with those damn gorgeous brown eyes and think,  _  well shit. This is going to be fun…  _


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Small TW for near death experience. (almost car accident)  
> idk if that needs a TW but better safe than sorry, right?
> 
> also, ACKKKK SO MANY YOUTUBER CAMEOS INCLUDING MY ABSOLUTE FAVE (cough cough stacyplays cough cough)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> { https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6GMVUrVLNc }  
> { https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MCjU-Du3eI }
> 
> I am so sorry for such a long break, but I had major writer's block. Extra long chapter to make up for it. Enjoy!  
> BTW!! Alternating POV between Dan & Phil. This chapter is Dan. x3

“Bye, sweetie, have fun on your first day!”  
“Mom, it’s my second day.”  
“Yes but yesterday was just a practice day, today is your first full day in a new school, perk up!”  
“Bye, mom.” I cringe, closing the door on my way out, a bit harder than I meant to. I walk down to wait at the bus stop, which is only a few blocks down and across the street from my house. I adjust the long, black sleeves of the sweater I’m wearing. I’m at least 5 minutes early so I pull out my phone and check tumblr.  
I’m the first to the stop, but after a while there are six or seven other kids around him, all talking to their friends. Of course no one was talking to him. He was just Dan Howell, the creepy 9th year who only wears black. He was just the weird new kid. I scoffed out of habit and turned away from the others so that I was facing away from everyone. Everyone that is, except one person.  
The bus goes down the street from where my house is (on the corner) down to the stop on its route that I had to look up last night, because my mom drove me to school yesterday. But it was still nowhere to be seen.. And I was facing down that side of street with everyone else on the other side of me, closer to the stop. I could hear the bus coming down the road but couldn’t see it yet. What I could see was a girl. Not just any girl. It was Cat! She was running down the street, her skirt that was shorter in the front and longer in the back was flowing behind her, obviously worried she was late. She decided to cross the street diagonally, probably to save time.  
And in that moment, the bus appeared around the corner and was barreling down the street.  
“Dan! Hey!” Cat called. She must have seen him. She was still running, but she had slowed down to wave at him. Something was wrong. The bus. The bus didn’t slow down.  
Oh no.  
In that moment everything slowed down. Cat seemed to realize that the bus was right behind her. The bus driver realized that he had to slam the brakes to avoid hitting Cat. I realized I had to do something.  
I am strong believer that running is torture, but in that moment, I ran so fast I could have beat the Flash in a game of tag. Sprinting forward I grabbed Cat’s hand and pulled her towards me and the sidewalk. Hard. She fell on top of me and we both land in a pile on the bushes next to the sidewalk. The bus screeches to a stop just in front of the stop.  
Shock. Everyone is in pure shock. No one is talking anymore. Everyone is just staring at Cat and I, in a pile on the bushes.  
“Oh. My. God.” I say, or try to. Huh. I didn’t even realized how out of breath I am. Cat is shaking on top of me. The bus driver has parked and is getting out. Kids are walking towards us. Some are still standing with their mouths open. Uh oh. I hate attention. Oh well.  
I gently push Cat of off me. She gasps and clings to me and gives me a hug. Oh. Well. I return the hug, and rub her back in attempts to calm her, she starts crying softly. Well that backfired. You might be wondering, everyone else seems surprised, and slightly scared, so why am I not reacting? I am. Any time there’s a situation that most people would react dramatically to, my reaction is just pretending like nothing happened. Pretending I didn’t just have a near death experience.  
Cat is still crying, but determined to calm her down I continue to rub her back. Her sobs become softer, and I hug her harder, before pulling away.  
“Cat.”  
“Dan,” she retorts. The smirk on her lips looks odd against the tears rolling down her cheeks.  
“Want to get up now?” I ask. Not wanting to say anything along the terms ‘are you ok’ because the obvious answer is no. The girl nearly got hit by a bus. Literally.  
“Yeah ok.” I stand up first, and she grabs my hand to get herself up. We turn around to be greeted by a flock of classmates and peers asking us if we’re ok. Honestly, I don’t know if I’m okay. Cat looks a little pale, so I’m guessing she’s not ok. But she does her best to look as pulled together as possible, and it’s impressive. If I didn’t recognize acting so easily I would believe she was fine.  
The bus driver calls the school to let them know that the bus is going to be late. And as if nothing happened, everyone gets on the bus single-file. The groups of friends re-group and sit together. Cat looks a bit lost. I was only with her for about half the day yesterday and from what I could tell she was shy around new people.  
I grab a window seat and wave her over, to sit with me. I half expect some of the boys to make kissing noises. They don’t, they ignore everyone else and huddle in the back playing video games on their phones. I recognize one of them as Felix, from my Math class.  
Normally I would take out my headphones, go on tumblr, and ignore everyone on the bus, but I feel like I should talk to Cat, distract her, or just talk to her. This is very confusing. What am I supposed to do?  
“Hey Dan.”  
“Hi.” Cringe attack! Facepalm level +20. Ugh. Could you be any more socially awkward, Dan? Hi? Wow. So interesting. If Cat could tell that I was having an internal struggle, she didn’t say anything.  
“So what did you pick as an art elective? I chose choir, because nothing else looked interesting.” Cat is surprisingly talkative, she seemed so quiet yesterday. Probably because we were surrounded by adults all day.  
“Oh, I picked theater,” I say.  
“Really? That’s so cool! I wanted to be an actress when I was just a smol child,” she jokes. I laugh along with her at the awful use of internet memes. I would be an expert in that one particular subject. Is that really anything to be proud of though? It’s only more proof that I have no social life.  
“Hiya!” a head pops out from the seat in front of us. It has curly brown hair, and some of the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen. They’re not like Phil’s which are piercing blue and sometimes gray, with flecks of green, no these eyes are deep blue, like an ocean. I prefered Phil’s eyes personally.  
“My name’s Troye,” he says, “and I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation.”  
He shakes hands with Cat and I.  
“I’m also gonna be in choir this year. Hope we get some good voices this time though, I was in choir in middle school as well and some of them were just people who thought they could sing, when they really couldn’t. Mainly girls. The guys were there because they’re mums forced them to, but I actually like singing. Not to brag or anything, but I’d say I’m pretty good.” And at that he flashes a toothy grin. Cat smiles back immediately. I’m just kind of surprised. I’m not a very good ‘people’ person, whatever that means.  
“Cat, and Dan right?” he asks.  
“Yep, that’s us.” I say quickly, wanting to contribute something to the conversation. As soon as the words are out of my mouth I want to facepalm. Ugh. Can I ever say anything not cringey??? Cat and Troye don’t seem to notice though, no one ever really does.  
“Cat, you’d like Emma, Emma Blackery. She’s also in choir with me. She’s great actually. As for theatre, Dan, well… I don’t really know many people in theatre. Except for Meghan. You’d like her. She’s pretty cool. A little obsessed with strawberries though...”  
“Um, ok.” I nod trying to take in all this new information, what is this school?  
“Look there it is!” Cat is pointing across me to the school building. Oh. That’s right…  
“Welp, here we are.” She says awkwardly.  
I nod, “Ah yes, school, the place young souls go to die.” She giggles and walks behind me off the bus. I ignore the bus driver, the guy looks so guilty and sorry. Hmph. Serves him right, nearly killing a girl with his awful driving skills. Who hired him?  
We’re walking towards the main back entrance of the school, near the gym and lunchroom area. Just as we’re about to enter the school, Cat pulls me to the side to left everyone behind us pass. Troye nods and waves as he runs into the school. Felix and the others don’t give us a second glance, determined to play his app game for as long as possible before getting caught and told off by a teacher.  
“Dan,” she starts, sounding quite serious for someone who is almost always laughing.  
“Cat,” I say jokingly. I’m really not good at this.  
She leans in...uhm, no… is she going to k-  
“Thank you.” She says barely audibly into my shoulder. Hug. Okay. Just a hug. That I can do. I return the hug. I don’t think I should say anything, if I did it would probably just ruin the moment.  
“Right let’s go in then,” she says. So we do. 

-_-~*`*~-_-~*`*~-_-~*`*~-_-~*`*~-_-~*`*~-_-~*`*~-_-

Lockers are assigned in alphabetical order. I only realize this after looking down the section of lockers assigned to 9th graders with last names starting with an “H”, and seeing Jack and Finn Harries on the opposite end of me, who were in my science and english classes. Finn being on the front end of the row, and me being on the back end.  
Walking up to the locker that is supposedly mine I put in the combination that is written in the corner of my schedule. I just carried my back around yesterday, and never actually opened my locker yet. I set my backpack down and take out some brand new notebooks and pencils.  
“Hiya!” a voice says over my shoulder, causing me to nearly have a heart attack. I turn to see a girl with a big smile and perfect wavy brown hair. She also has big glasses framing her eyes greenish-hazel eyes.  
“I’m Stacy!” she sticks out her hand and I shake it trying not to appear too confused.  
“I’m Dan.”  
“Well hello Dan. You’re new here right? I figured since we’ll be seeing each other pretty much everyday for the rest of the year, we might as well be friends.” I nod, finally understanding. She has an American accent and is wearing a simple, but pretty, blue and white striped shirt, with plain blue jeans, and brown leather boots. She would seem very plain or uninteresting, if it weren’t for her backpack that’s covered in a pattern of cartoon dogs. An dog lover, it would seem...  
The warning bell rings and we both turn back to our lockers to gather our things as fast as possible. I turn to say goodbye to Stacy but she’s disappeared. Looking down the hall I see her speed-walking the opposite way I have to go.  
“See ya around, Dan!” she calls over her shoulder. I just wave. She’s too far away to hear me now anyway. Just before I turn around and walk away I notice a girl with pastel pink hair join her side, and they walk into a classroom together. It makes me realize. Everyone has friend groups here. It’s 2 weeks into the school year, and everyone already has their ‘friend groups’. The only person I really talked to was Cat, but only because she happened to transfer on the exact same day as I had. Weird coincidence if you ask me.  
But I can’t just stand around daydreaming, being late is embarrassing, and yesterday was enough awkwardness as I could take. If you ask anyone else they wouldn’t have even cared that the guidance counselor walked me around all day, showing me where my classes were, and I was grateful for it, but it was horribly embarrassing having to interrupt classes each time and have the teacher ‘introduce’ me to the class. Luckily it was only for the classes up to lunch. Cat and I stayed in the guidance counselor’s office for lunch while they told us where the rest of our classes were. I guess they were done with us because after that they let us wander off on our own.  
I was so lucky to have found Phil, otherwise I would have been late to french, and probably stood outside the door waiting to go in because I was too embarrassed about being late. Stupid, I know, because I would only be more late, but I’ve done that a surprising amount of times in the past.  
I find my class, Algebra I. I could probably have taken Algebra II, but I figured I should start easy…..or maybe I was just too lazy. Debateable. I find a seat in the back because there is no seating chart, thank god, and look around at the faces around me, slowly becoming more and more familiar. I recognize Jack Harries, as he seems to be the teacher’s pet, and she keeps calling on him. Looking around, there are other faces I can put names to, like Felix, whose name I only know because he gets yelled at by Ms. Smith a lot for talking in class, or playing video games in the middle of a lesson.  
I seem to have started daydreaming again, because the girl sitting in front of me gives me a strange look and hands me a sheet that looks like guided notes. I mutter a small “thank you” and she flashes a smile before turning back to face the front. Well. That wasn’t at all embarrassing. Really? No, not at all. It was funny how sarcastic I can be sometimes, even to myself. I decide to finally pay attention. Nothing interesting happens. Literally nothing. AT ALL. Like, I know school is boring and all, but why can’t this be like every book and movie ever, where the entire school is separated because of one big bully, and the bully is only defeated by the new kid. I think I watched ‘Mean Girls’ one too many times.  
By the time I get to lunch I realize, I wasn’t completely wrong. The school is most definitely divided, but not in a bad way. And there is most definitely no big bad bully. A few jerks here and there, but no real ‘villain’. I guess that’s the way life is though. Everyone is living in their own little bubble of a world, with their own problems and their own personal enemies and allies. Wow, so insightful, Dan, just don’t go having an existential crisis in the middle of lunch now.  
“Umm, Dan?” I turn to see Phil holding two empty lunch trays with a confused and slightly scared expression on his face.  
“Crap, I’m sorry. I talk to myself sometimes..”  
“It’s okay, you don’t need to explain. Anyway, are you buying lunch?” I feel myself melting a bit. He is so sweet, and his smile reminds me of the sun, warm and blinding. Dan, your ‘gay’ is showing.  
“Yeah, actually, how’d you know?” I say nonchalantly, as if he didn’t just catch me talking to myself like a psycho. I accept the empty lunch tray he hands me and I follow him to the lunch line. We pass some tables or as I’d rather call them, ‘cliques’ and I make mental note of them.  
“Cool Asians” - Includes a boy from 1st period and a bunch of his friends that I don’t recognize. They actually look genuinely cool, and I can’t help but feel a little envious.  
“Barbies” - Including a few girls who I know are in ‘theater’ with me, and all of them wearing a cake-face of makeup. I’m not trying to be rude, because I respect people and their decisions of what they do to themselves, I just think that one girl is wearing way too much eyeliner. And her friend is probably the reason the phrase “eyebrow game too strong” was invented. But what would I know?  
“Gamers”, I don’t think I need to expand on that. The only thing worth noting, is that a lot of them have brightly dyed hair, and that one entire table is guys, and another one is completely girls, except for two guys. I recognize Stacy at the table of gamers, which I totally didn’t expect. Looks can be extremely deceiving.  
I must have been distracted by all the different, bright hair colors, that I didn’t realize that Phil had stopped walking, and I walk directly into him, and we topple over like dominoes. Luckily there are no notebooks or pencils dropped, since I left everything in my locker, and Phil and I only have a lunch tray on ourselves.  
“I’m sorry, I’m such a klutz,” he apologizes. It’s weird. It was my fault, why was he apologizing? He also looks like he’s blushing. Frankly, I find it adorable. DAN UR GEY IS SHOWING!  
“Uhm-No it was my fault, sorry about that, I should have been paying attention.” I get up and help him get up. At that moment, a blonde girl appears by Phil’s side.  
“Hi Phil, hello Dan, I’m Louise. I’m in your science class.”  
I nod, “I know.”  
“Hello Louise, have you stopped by for your daily dose of unwarranted gossip?” I’m a bit taken back by that. Phil has been nothing but polite since I met him, and doesn’t seem the type to make sassy remarks like that. He’s probably good friends with Louise though, because she isn’t affected by it at all.  
“Of course, why would you think otherwise, dear?” My heart sinks a little. They’re not together right? I shouldn’t be jealous, but I can’t help it, I am. Louise gives me a once-over and pulls Phil to the side and whispers something in his ear. He turns bright red, and she flashes a smile at us, then leaves.  
“Um…”  
“Oh don’t mind her. Louise is always spreading gossip.”  
“Alright. So...what would you recommend I get for lunch?” My attempts at starting conversation are pathetic.  
“Pizza. Always, pizza.” I laugh because he looks dead serious. “And if all else fails, curly fries.” He smiles wide, obviously teasing. So we get pizza. And he starts walking away, and looks back at me and points to an empty table. I take it as an invitation to sit. We are almost immediately joined by two of Phil’s friends.  
“I’m PJ, that’s Chris,” the one with curly hair and green eyes says, pointing to his friend.  
“I’m Dan.” Not at all awkward… WHAT DO I SAY NOW!?!?  
“How do you like our small school?” PJ asks. He seems like a big talker, and he’s just really friendly. He has that smile that just makes you feel welcome. I’m great at reading people, it’s why I signed up for theater. I can read body language, and then imitate it when I need to, to portray certain emotions. It’s super easy, and one of the only things I’m good at really.  
“It’s nice, everyone seems friendly. Classes are kind of boring though, not that I expected anything else.” They nod in understanding.  
“Hey Dan, we should compare schedules, PJ and I still have ours! I can’t vouch for Chris though.”  
“Hey!”  
“Well do you have it Chris,” PJ asks.  
“...No, but who cares? I doubt anyone else does besides you two dorks.” They laugh, and so do I. I pull out my schedule and compare it to Phil’s and PJ’s. Apparently PJ is in my science class. Phil is in my French and English classes. Considering it’s a small school, and the 9th grade class is pretty small as well, everyone seems to know almost everyone else’s names.  
PJ and Chris start a discussion about the future and what the world will be like in 20 years, with Phil joining in and making comments every now and then. In the meantime I start eating my pizza and look around the lunchroom, wondering where Cat could be. It takes a while, but I spot her at the same table Stacy’s at, and she’s talking to one of the guys there. I believe his name is Joey.  
Louise gets up from her table and walks over to Cat, all of a sudden. They seem to know each other and then Cat gets up. They start walking over to our table, together.  
“Hey Phil. This is Cat. Mind if we sit with you guys?”  
Any conversation that was happening stops, but Chris scoots closer to PJ, to let Louise sit down, and Cat sits in between Phil and I. I don’t mind, but when PJ seems to be blushing a bit. Probably because of the awkward situation, which I can relate to. Chris, PJ, and Phil resume their conversation about the future and I start talking to Louise and Cat, with nothing better to do.  
“So...Louise. What’s your favorite class?”  
“I like english or science. They’re my two favorite subject. But if we’re talking class, like teachers, then English is definitely my favorite. How about you, Dan?”  
“I honestly don’t know. I like theater I guess…”  
“What about you, Cat? Any prefered subject or class?”  
“All of them! Not math, though…”  
“Math is necessary!” Phil chimes in.  
“But no one likes it.” Chris says. Relatable.  
“That’s not true. Plenty of people love math.” PJ says.  
“Including you?” Louise asks.  
“..Nah.” Everyone laughs. It’s nice, comfortable. It’s also kind of weird. Having a group of friends. Not that I haven’t had friends before. Just, not so many. And not as quickly. And they weren’t as nice. It wasn’t bad, just different.  
But I guess different doesn’t always mean bad...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Im sorry again for he long break. And unfortunately it's going to happen once more before I can make a definitive writing schedule. Sowwy! My sister is getting married next month so I won't be able to post chapter 3 until september. Once school gets started again (about a week into september) i will try to update regularly every other friday. I don't know if I have said this already, but my goal for this is about 40 - 50K words. That is about 15 - 20 chapters.  
> Hope you liked this chapter! Feedback and tips are welcome!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> EVEN MORE Characters! Also rated S for sass. You have been warned  
> Phil POV and Dan POV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello friends. It's been pretty hectic coming back from summer and then school starting again, so I'm finally back in the flow of things! To make up for being about two weeks late (*cries*) I will be posting chapter 4 later today or tonight too. Yay!  
> Enjoy!~

The days went by and by, and soon a week had passed. I, for the most part, got over the butterflies, and Dan and I became very close friends after realizing how much we had in common. I wrote off the weird feeling in my stomach as excitement because I had a new friend. After all, we didn’t get many new students in our district. 

For about three days he came over to my house to work on our French project. After we finished the project early, I was worried he wouldn’t come over as often, but it was almost the opposite. He came over regularly to neglect his homework and play video games with me.

It felt like I had known him forever. It became normal for Dan to sit with PJ, Chris, and I, and we were occasionally joined by Louise and/or Cat.

In fact, it was one of the days that we were all together that I remember. The bet! I had yet to find a date for the dance. As far as I knew, Chris and PJ didn’t have dates either. Then again, I knew Chris well, and I can tell when he’s planning something. He just has that dumb smirk, stuck permanently on his face. The only other person who knew of the bet was Louise, and I considered asking Louise to the dance as a friend, but it wouldn’t count as a  **date** and I wanted to win this bet fairly. 

Struck by sudden inspiration (which was Cat walking into the lunchroom) I get an idea. One possibly better than anything Chris has planned. I sprint my way to where she’s walking, I don’t have much time to tell her my idea so I have to work with what I’ve got. Ignoring the looks of confusion and suspicion that Chris and PJ are shooting at us, I pull Cat to the side.

“Wha- Hi? Phil! What’s up?” she is genuinely confused.

“I had an idea.”  
“I can tell.”  
“I made a bet with Chris and PJ that whoever gets a date to the dance is treated to frozen yogurt by the losers. We can all get frozen yogurt if you want, I’m sure I can convince them, if this works. So, I was wondering if maybe- you don’t have to, I just thought- no pressure though-”

“Spit it out Phil!”

“Can we go to the dance together? We don’t actually have to date, we could just pretend to until the dance and I promise that we’ll both get frozen yogurt. Besides, it would be kind of fun to hold it over Chris.”  _ He or PJ always wins everything, from video games to bets, and I want to win  _ something _ just once. _

“...Well, sure! Why not? It does sound fun.”  _ Yes! _ “I didn’t have a date anyway… On one condition, though.”  _ Oh god.  _ “We come clean after the dance. I wouldn’t want to lie to our friends. Only harmlessly prank them.”

“Deal.” We shake on it, but pull away quickly, realizing how weird we must look.

I leave her to get lunch and notice Dan walking in from the corner of my eye. He sits with Chris and PJ and I can tell they’re talking about me. He turns and soon they’re all staring at me.  _ Well crap. What do I do now? _

Stall. I have to stall until I figure out how to tell them Cat and I are going on a date without giving away that it’s a prank. I’m not the best actor, or so I’ve heard from Dan while we were practicing his lines for the winter play. He said I sounded like I robot, and after that I was laughing too hard to actually read the lines. He was thoroughly annoyed, but gave up on worrying about it once I told him that he did it perfectly and could not possibly be any better.

I spot Louise in line to get lunch, a few people ahead of Cat’s place in line, so in mid-panic not really knowing what else to do, I walk up to her. She gives me her daily dose of mildly interesting student news, and mentions that the student council is going to make the dance halloween themed. 

“There’s supposed to be candy, and optional costumes, and even spooky decorations. Zoe said that there’s going to be a sign-up sheet for anyone who wants to help with decorations. She’s the one who came up with the idea for the sign-up sheet, actually.”

“Of course she is. It’s Zoe we’re talking about. That’s good and all, but let’s talk about something more exciting. Is she finally going to ask Alfie out?” I say, wiggling my eyebrows. Louise shushes me to be quiet.

“You have to promise not to say anything,” and I nod, even though it’s pointless at this point. Everyone knows Zoe and Alfie have liked each other since 7th grade. “She’s going to ask him to the dance on Friday.” 

“This Friday!? Why? There’s at least 2 weeks left until the dance!”

“Yes, but she’s hoping they could go out before that, and maybe even become boyfriend and girlfriend.”

“Really?” 

She nods, “Now go! And remember, not a word.”   
“Alright Ms. Bossypants…” I mumble. 

“How old are you, Phil?”

“I’m this many!” I hold up 4 fingers. She pushes me out of the line and I feel much calmer now. I walk towards the table again, and sit down next to Dan. 

“So, what was that about?” 

“Way to be subtle, Chris.” 

“Thanks, Peej, I try.”  If it were anyone else I would call that flirting, but it couldn’t be. Chris and PJ are the most hetero-of-the-sexuals. So I roll my eyes at them, and decide to sidestep the question.

“Louise says the dance is going to be Halloween themed.” 

“Ooh, I love Halloween. It’s the one time of year you can wear all black and not be judged.” He says it jokingly but I definitely don’t take it that way. 

“Who judges you, Dan?” It’s the first time he’s mentioned this, and being a former bullying victim, it sounds awfully familiar. Sure I’ve teased him about his refusal to wear bright colors, but he knows I’m not serious about it.

“No one and everyone.” PJ furrows his eyebrows in concern, and I’m sure my face is an exact mirror. Not even Chris says anything.

“Are you ok, Dan?” PJ asks cautiously.

“Of course, I’m fine. I was just kidding, jeez.” And no one mentions it again. Lunch goes smoothly for the most part and Dan and I wave bye to Chris and PJ as we walk to French. I know I shouldn’t pry, but I have to know if Dan is getting bullied. He can’t not tell anyone about it, because I made the same stupid mistake and regretted not telling anyone sooner. So I do exactly what I probably shouldn’t…

“Dan.” I stop and he stops walking too.

“What’s wrong, Phil?”

“You’re not getting bullied, right Dan? You can tell me if you are, you know.” His face hardens, but then loosens again with understanding and he’s almost smiling. Almost.

“That’s what this is about? No Phil, I promise you I’m not getting bullied.”

“Do you swear on your life?” 

“I swear on my life. Now hurry up or we’re going to be late.”  _ Well...okay, then.  _ I’m used to Dan’s acting, and can tell when he’s lying by now, so I trust him. He’s not getting bullied, but there’s this feeling I can’t shake off, like he’s not telling me something. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’m just trying to be a good friend. It doesn’t matter, I trust Dan, and if something was wrong, he would tell me.

We walk into French, and I fully expect to be yelled at for being 5 seconds late like every other day…. Nothing. The only thing I can hear is murmuring in english. What!? Looking up to the teacher’s desk, it makes sense, we have a sub.  _ Yay!  _ I find two empty seats in the back and we sit down, unsure of what to expect. It’s the first time we’ve had a French sub since the school year started.

“Phil.” Dan whispers.

“What.” I say equally quietly.

“How much you wanna bet that she’s gonna make us watch something?”

“One slice of pizza.”

“Today, class,” she begins in a french accent, “we are going to be watching a short video about the French language.”

“You owe me a slice of pizza.” I can hear the smugness in his voice, and I can tell without looking that he’s smirking. 

“So who can tell me what France is famous for? Yes?” She points to Anthony who hasn’t raised his hand, but whatever. 

“Croissants.” I hear a few quiet snickers.

“Okay, well I was thinking more about the French language, specifically. Yes?”

“French is known as being the ‘language of love’,” Zoe answers smartly. That sounds like an exact definition, but I don’t see a dictionary anywhere.  _ She’s scary good.  _ There’s a collective awkward feeling because of the whole ‘love’ thing. Or maybe that’s just me…

“That’s right. So today we will be watching a short video about it for the rest of the period.”

_ Yay… _

“Don’t forget to get out a blank piece of paper to take notes!”

_ Boo…  _

“You can talk quietly if you want to.”

_ Yay…  _ I wait for the catch; the “only in French” part, but it never comes. So I move my desk closer to Dan’s and we take notes, together. All through the period we make snide remarks together, and talk quietly, and suddenly, my least favorite subject, becomes a whole lot more bearable. 

The period ends and as we part ways to go to different classes I feel the smallest bit sad, but overwhelmingly happy. Never have I had a friend who I had so much in common, and even some things opposite with. I’m so lucky to have found Dan.

 

**Dan POV**

I’m so lucky to have a friend like him. Phil is the best friend I ever had. Around him, everything feels brighter. All the darkness is smushed under the sound of his laughter.  _ Am I obsessed? No.  _ I just never had a best friend before. It’s nice to have one. And things at this new school have just been going so well. Everything has been going well. And it all started when I met Phil. So yeah. I have good reasons to be happy. Or at least, a good reason. 

I nearly start skipping, then and there in the middle of the hallway, but I don’t thank god. Instead I stumble over my untied shoelace and trip and fall. 

“Whoa, you okay there?” A voice asks. I look up to see a boy with silvery-white hair, with some lavender mixed in, and glasses that perfectly frame his greyish-blue eyes. He walks towards me away from his locker and sticks out his hand. I grab it and use my other hand to get up.       

“You must have talent, even I couldn’t manage such an epic fall.”

“Fall? No no, I was attacking the floor.”

I manage to make him laugh and he says, “You’re funny, I think I’ll keep you. I’m Tyler by the way.”

“I’m Dan. The-”  
“New kid? Yeah I thought so. I know _everyone_ , and up until know you were the only exception.” 

“Aw, I’m special.” I joke. 

“Totally.” He grabs one last book from his locker before shutting it, and waves as he heads down the hallway the way I came from.

~~~~~

The bell rings after eight period and I think,  _ finally!  _ The day has been great overall. I doubt anything could ruin it. The bus ride home is quick, and finally,  _ finally, _ I can relax and take a break. A no homework night, so I can watch Netflix and rot in my room, or maybe go on tumblr to scroll eternally.  The choice is mine, that’s what matters. 

I hop off the bus with my headphones still in, I try to walk home as slowly as possible. Just because I can. I walk in, holding the door open because if you don’t it will just slam shut really loudly. And my mum would yell at me for scaring her so bad while she was in the middle of work. And then we would laugh because she realized she was on a conference call and just scolded all of her co-workers. It’s happened before. 

I decide to go say hi from outside the office room. She waves and points at her headphones, indicating that she’s on a call. I keep a smile plastered on my face and mouth that I’m going to my room. And I do, after grabbing a mini bag of chips from the kitchen. I’ve made my choice. I’m going on tumblr, and then watching anime. It just makes sense. 

I run up to my room, and throw myself onto my bed. I really like how I decorated the new place. My mum was kind enough to get me new furniture from IKEA, because she knew how reluctant I was to move. She figured it wouldn’t be as bad if I got to decorate my room. And she was right. As bad as it was, I could survive anything if I just had a place to hide for a while. 

Looking around, my eyes were met by different shades of gray, white, but mostly black. My bed set, the walls, the nightstand and dresser, all in my black aesthetic. So it was nice. I haven’t got homework to do. And a new season of Attack on Titan is on the best anime watching website.  _ Well, I  _ do _ have long-term projects….. But there’s still time for that.  _

So I start watching anime, with headphones, of course. Before I know it the sun has set, and my mom calls me down for dinner. I don’t hear her so instead of doing what normal parents do, she barges in without knocking.

“Daniel?!” No one will ever be as good at jumpscares as my mother. Freddy Fazbear would run away screaming. I jump up and put my hand over my heart which is beating 100 beats a minutes, I’m sure. Then I take a second to close my laptop and put it aside.

“I’m coming mum.” She waits for me to roll out of the cave I’ve made using my bed sheets and walks downstairs with me. 

“I made pasta.”

“Gre-”

“So how was school today?” 

“Fi-”

“Did you finish your homework?”

“No homework night.” I say quickly, before she can interrupt me again. 

“Oh, good. You can finally clean your room, then!” I roll my eyes.  _ Yeah, right. _

We sit down to eat, and I don’t say much. It’s been a long day, and I’m tired, there isn’t much to say. I finish eating first so I get up to wash my plate.

“So, how’s school?” My mom asks.

“You already asked me that, remember? It’s fine.”

“Well… I meant your... what I meant was, any new friends?”

“I’ve made friends, mum, they’re nice, and I don’t need anymore.” I put my plate in the dishwasher to dry and close it a bit harder than I meant to. My mum is very caring, but I think sometimes she cares too much about my social life.

“That’s nice,” she continues, oblivious to the fact that I don’t want to talk about this. “Any cute girls?” 

I choke. “What? No!” She raises her eyebrow,  _ I fucked up, _ and I say in a calmer voice, “I’m focusing on schoolwork, mum.” It sounds more like a question.

“Hmm, well Dan, I’ve seen your grades, they are rather good, though you could do something about that C in Biology. Anyway, I’ve been talking to a woman who lives down the road, and she has a lovely daughter who’s your age...”

“No.”

“Daniel, please? I won’t bug you about it ever again, just one date. Just try it! I refuse to let you live your entire adolescence rotting away inside and never socializing.”

_ How can I say no to my mother? _ “Fine, just once.”

Her face lights up, “Oh, that’s wonderful! I’ll give Diane a call right now.” I groan and turn to go back upstairs, but I can’t help but smile.  _ If it makes her happy, how can I say no?  _ I flop back onto my bed and open up my laptop again.  _ Of course, I could just tell her I’m gay… But it’s never that simple is it? I’m not ready to do that. Not yet…..  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Big news!  
> Chapters for this will be up every other Sunday. (This week might be an exception, we'll see.)  
> And also, it's been a week since Chris' (crabstickz/Chris Kendall) Birthday so I hope you've all wished him a good one!

**Author's Note:**

> Oh boy....  
> Tell me what you think, pls! <3


End file.
